Glenn: Yes, I believe that Erdogan has been built up by the West in order to replace the person of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran so that Turkey can be the new leader of the Sunni Muslim world and more than likely in being the tip of the spear launching military operations against Syria so that it does not appear to be an American or Western or NATO or even an Israeli military excursion per se, but rather something between Turkey and Syria.
This latest event of the bombing that took place at the border town of Syria has all of the hallmarks of a joint Israeli, CIA even Turkish intelligence operation aimed at polarizing the people of Turkey in favor of war against Syria.
The good news however as your network has pointed out is that the people don’t seem to be buying this, they are actually calling for the resignation of Erdogan and I think that the credit for this in addition to the Turkish people themselves can be given to certain alternative media outlets such as Press TV in waking the people of the world up to the nature of how these kinds of games are played.

Turkish demonstrators have taken to the streets in the southern city of Reyhanli near the Syria border, to condemn recent deadly car bombings in the city, urging Turkey’s prime minister to resign.
The protesters on Monday condemned the violence, noting that the outbreak of violence was due to the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s support for armed insurgents in Syria.

After more than two years of civil war, fomented by the US and its allies, the crisis in Syria appears to be coming to a head. Amid a vast crisis threatening a devastating regional war, the American ruling class is threatening to respond with yet more military violence.
In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Anne-Marie Slaughter—a Princeton professor who is a leading proponent of “humanitarian intervention” and Obama’s chief policy planner at the State Department from 2009 to 2011—wrote that “US credibility is on the line.” From the standpoint of such forces in the US foreign policy establishment, the failure to topple Assad, who has Russian and Chinese backing, would be an unacceptable blow to US efforts to establish its global geo-strategic dominance.
“It comes down to an existential struggle,” said Salman Shaikh of the Brookings Doha center think-tank. “Those who oppose Assad really have to show that they mean it now.”

The conference on a peaceful settlement in Syria could be held in Geneva in early June. This was reported by official spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State Jennifer Psaki.
”Secretary of State John Kerry voiced the desire to hold the conference as soon as possible – ideally, before the end of May. But as you know, this process involves a lot of countries. And it seems that this deadline might be pushed to early June,” – said Psaki, adding that there was no mention of a specific date as yet.
In addition, she reported that the list of conference participants is also under discussion, commenting journalists’ questions about the possible involvement of Iran.

The tempo of events in Syria has accelerated in recent weeks. The government forces have scored significant battlefield victories over the rebels, and this has provoked a mixture of war provocations and peace offers from the U.S. and its anti-Assad allies.
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U.S. foreign policy is now completely dependent on using the threat of annihilation. As U.S. economic power has declined in relation to China and other countries, the economic carrot has been tossed aside in favor of the military stick. Plenty of U.S. foreign policy “experts” are demanding that Obama unsheathe the stick again, lest this foundation of U.S. foreign policy be proven to be just talk and no action.
This is the essence of U.S. involvement in Syria, which is risking regional war that could include Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Israel, Iran, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia with the potential to drag in the bigger powers connected to these nations, the U.S. and Europe on one hand and Russia and China on the other.The fate of the already-suffering Middle East is hanging in the balance.

Recent reports from the ground suggest that America and its allies are loosing their covert war in support of the Al Nusra front. In recent weeks, the US sponsored Al Qaeda affiliated rebels have been decimated by the Syrian Armed Forces.

In a statement, the Council called on the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to exploit the bombings which rocked al-Rihaniya city as a pretext for a declared attack against Syria.
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The Council stressed that the feelings of amity and peace are overwhelming the majority of the Turkish people, expressing solidarity with the ongoing demonstrations in more than 10 Turkish cities which are calling for peace and ending interference in Syria.

The Real News – Phyllis Bennis: The humanitarian disaster in Syria is mostly ignored as external powers vie for position to control outcome of civil war